The Past Comes Back To Haunt Us
by CaskettMyHeart
Summary: Inspired by the song Jolene, What if Ell came back to life and causes some trouble between the centuries old vampire and the brave young Laura?


_What if Ell came back to life and causes some trouble between the centuries old vampire and the brave young Laura?_

She woke up with the girl in her arms mumbling and twitching in her sleep. It's not the first time this has happened but it is the first time she feels the name tug at her heart. _Ell._ Of all people Carmilla could be dreaming about, Ell is the last name Laura wants to hear from her girlfriend's lips. Yet there she was, lying beside Carmilla, running her hand through the dark locks of hair to try and calm her down.

"Shhh Carm, it's okay. You're okay." She softly says in the vampire's ear as she keeps holding her close.

"Ell?" Carmilla moans as her face takes on a pained expression.

"Wake up, Carm. You're okay, you can wake up now." Laura sighed as she kept trying to calm her girlfriend down.

Carmilla groaned as she started to wake up. Her eyes slowly creeping open. "Laura?"

The use of her real name instead of the usual sweet nicknames pulled at her heart. Carmilla only ever used her actual name when something's wrong, or in special occasions.

"Yeah, it's me Carm. I'm here." Carmilla pulled Laura close in response. "Do you want to talk about it?"  
Carmilla shook her head. She never wanted to talk about them. The only thing Laura knew for sure was that Carmilla dreamt about Ell nearly every night ever since Ell had returned.

"No. No this can't be…" Her low voice seemed so unlike herself. There before the dark haired girl was standing the complete opposite of her. Ell was blonde and dressed in a light gown staring with emerald green eyes into Carmilla's brown ones. Carmilla was frozen in place as Ell smiled.

"Mircalla, at last!" Ell reached out and put her arms around Carmilla's neck. She remained frozen in shock for a moment before putting her arms around the light frame of her former lover.

"Ell, how?" That was all she could get out for now.

"Does it really matter?" Ell softly speaks. "All I care about is you and I. My dear Mircalla, I'm so sorry. I was surprised – I shouldn't have done that to you."

Ell was still holding Carmilla's hands when Carmilla felt her mind regaining strength again, remembering everything that happened with Ell. How the game had started off the same but turned into a real friendship. How she had loved Ell. How she had planned to escape with her, away from Maman. How her Maman ruined their relationship by revealing her true nature in the most horrifying light. How Ell had called her a monster as she had broken down under the harsh words of whom she thought she'd be with forever. How Maman had taken Ell away, as a sacrifice for the light.

Now Ell was back, seemingly alive. She seemed to be completely over the fact that Carmilla is a vampire. 1872. She remembers as if it was only yesterday, which is saying a lot seeing as she's now 335 years old. After the decades she spent buried in that coffin full of blood, she still felt heartbroken over Ell. But in a way she realized she'd been naïve to think Ell could love her if she'd known the truth. Years she spent trying to get over Ell. Always failing until her eyes settled on a young strong-willed female called Laura. Laura had shown her that vampires could be loved. That _she_ could be loved.

Carmilla's hands loosened on Ell's and she let them slip out of her grasp. Laura. She was with Laura now. Laura never betrayed her.

"I need to- I don't know. Just- " She couldn't find her words as she watched Ell's face turn into a hurt frown. Carmilla turned to walk back to the dorm she had left not too long ago. She wanted to run but thought the walk there would help clear her mind. Super speed didn't exactly help with that.

"Mircalla, wait!" Ell called out.

"Carmilla. It's Carmilla now." Her voice broke and she started to run, she simply had to get away from her as fast as she could.

Laura slipped out of Carmilla's hold once she was back asleep. It was morning anyways, but not for Carmilla. She'd still sleep until noon. But Laura had to get up. If she wasn't doing this now, she wasn't sure if she'd ever find the strength to. She checked up on Carmilla once more before she headed out the door. Carmilla was holding her yellow pillow close.

She walked around trying to find her for an hour before she finally had an idea. The pit. Of course. She started walking towards the Lustig building as she mentally prepared herself for what was about to happen.

"Laura?" Carmilla was hesitant. She wasn't sure about how to approach this but she knew she had to. "You have to listen to me for a second, and hear me out."

"Okay Carm, you're kind of scaring me. What's wrong?" Laura had that cute frown on her face, but in this case she couldn't really look her in the eyes.

"It's about- " She tried to compose herself and took a breath. Somehow it still helped calm her down.  
"Ell is back."

Laura was confused. "Wait, Carm. What do you mean: back?"

"Back as in she found me in the park and talked to me and hugged me and- Oh Laura I don't know how but she's back." Was she nervous? She sure felt like she was.

Laura was petrified and angry at the same time. Carmilla and she had been together for only a few months. But she wouldn't want to lose her for the world, and certainly not _the_ ex-girlfriend that had caused so much drama in the vampire's life.

"What are you going to do?" That was all she could really ask. This was going to ruin them, wasn't it? Carmilla was finally okay after dealing with her Maman, but it had taken her a long time to get over it. But she knew that Carmilla still reeled from what happened centuries ago with Ell. Even after she started her relationship with Laura, she knew that a first love would never be forgotten. Carmilla didn't dare say she loved Ell. Only that they really cared for one another. But Laura knew better. Because she felt to same way Carmilla had once felt about Ell and she'd be darned if she ever let it come to a point where she had to grieve the same loss Carmilla had all those years ago.

"I don't know Laura." Carmilla had sounded so defeated. So torn.

Laura stared at the blonde sitting beside the pit as the yellow puff balls of light floated around. They never really disappeared after the fight and made the cave look less dark and grim. She took in a shaky breath and opened up her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"Laura, I presume?" She had a soft voice like summer rain that fit the figure of the girl. Laura walked towards her and sat down once she reached the blonde. She didn't dare look at the girl. She was already intimidated enough as it was. The answer to the question went unspoken.

"She talks about you in her sleep, you know?" Laura said, her voice more sure than she ever hoped it could be. "And I know you meant a lot to her, but I can't keep myself from crying when she calls your name and it needs to stop. Please… I'm begging you, Ell." She felt Ell's eyes on her as she studied her hands in her lap. Ell still didn't speak, she just kept studying Laura as Laura took a breath again.

"And I can easily understand how you could just take her away from me but- " She tried to blink the tears away at the thought of having Carmilla being stolen away from her by her girlfriend's first love. "You don't know what she means to me, Ell."

She finally took her eyes off her hands and stared straight into the emerald green eyes of the intimidating girl sitting beside her. She could see how Carmilla fell for the blonde. She really was a beautiful girl with ivory skin.

"Oh, I think I have an idea of what she means to you and what you mean to her. If she's dreaming about me while she's with you… Isn't that enough evidence for you, doll?" Ell smirked. "She's happy with me. We care about each other."

Laura felt her heart pull inside her chest. First love is never forgotten. She knows that. It's what she fears with Carmilla. She swallowed the lump that was in her throat and closed her eyes.

"I'm begging you, Ell. Please don't take her away from me. You could have anyone you want, but I- I love her. And I don't think I will ever love again if you take her away from me. My happiness depends on you, whatever you decide to do." Laura stood up as a tear fell from her eye. She caught the next one and whipped it away, defeated. Ell looked down at the dark colored sand as Laura walked away crying in silence.

The day after she first saw Ell she stayed inside her dorm, hoping to avoid meeting her once again. The time she had spent wondering about Ell and how she could possibly still live after the light consumed her mind, hadn't helped her decide what to do even one bit. Telling Laura hadn't really helped since Laura had been too afraid to say what was on her mind. The normally brave and stubborn girl had been too silent.

Ever since then, Ell haunted Carmilla in her dreams. Carmilla tried to avoid sleeping but with Laura worrying so much about her, and her feeling the lack of speed in her strength, she had given up on trying to stay awake. But every single night, she'd dream of Ell. For weeks.

Carmilla knew it hurt Laura too, but she couldn't help it. Ell manipulated her dreams. She made Carmilla dream about all different kinds of scenarios. There were scenes where she and Ell had run away successfully, and ones where Ell had not believed her Maman. But there had also been ones where Carmilla had been forced to kill Ell instead of her being sacrificed to the light.

She simply couldn't escape from Ell, and it was tearing her and Laura further apart each day. This had to stop.

Carmilla wrote a note to warn Laura when she'd return from class to their room that she'd be out for a while. She didn't want to make it sound like she'd never return, but that was how it felt when she put pen to paper. She knew better though. She headed out the door hoping Laura would never read the poorly constructed note.

She knew where she had to go to find Ell.

Ell was in the same position as she had been for the past few weeks. Seated beside the pit that was once filled with light. She kept staring into it, even as Carmilla walked towards her.

"I didn't think you'd come back." Ell's voice made the hairs in her neck stand up. She still wasn't used to hearing her speak after centuries of silence and forgetting her voice, her movements, and her faults.

"I wasn't going to." Carmilla sat down next to her, as Laura had before. The tear stained sand had dried up by now. She sighed, "But I couldn't stay away."

This made Ell smile. They looked at each other but Carmilla kept a straight face, which made Ell concerned. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Now Carmilla's mouth twitched slightly upwards. She shook her head ever so slightly.  
"Ell," the name felt so weird coming from her lips, "I can't do this to her." Ell's face fell at these words, a hard look in her eyes replaced the soft one she had before.

"And you. You need to stop this. You can't drag me back down with you. I know you won't stay." Carmilla bit her lip and Ell reached out to cup her face.

"I will, Mircalla. I'm not the same as I was before. I will love you. I will stay forever your with you. She won't." She nearly spat those last words at Carmilla.

"I told you, it's Carmilla now." She pulled Ell's hand from her face and put it in between her cold and slender ones. "Ell, I think I'm in love with her. And you're not going to stop me from being with her. No matter how bad you try to come to me in my dreams. When I wake up, it's going to be her there by my side."

Ell scoffed and turned away from Carmilla.  
"You know she came to me right?" Ell had a smirk on her face.

Carmilla was confused. "What do you mean?"

"She told me of how she can't stand to hear you say my name in your sleep. How she cries every time she hears _my_ name come from _your_ lips." Carmilla felt her eyes sting with tears that would never come, because vampires don't cry. But they why did she feel like crying right now?

"She came here, and asked- no. She begged for me to let her have you. She pleaded for me to let you go and leave you be with her." Ell still had that cold look in her eyes and her frame seemed so unlike the soft girl she once knew.

"She's already given up on you." Ell was smiling now. "She thinks you'll chose me over her either way."

Carmilla swallowed the lump that had formed as Ell had spoken the words. She straightened up and inside of her something switched. What was the point of being nice to someone who you once knew if they were now just a cold, stone hearted body without a soul? Because that's the impression Carmilla now had of the once soft, loving Ell.

She stood up and started walking away from the pit, and Ell.

"What are you doing?" Ell stood up and started walking after her.

"You're wrong, Ell. I would never choose someone like you over my Laura." Her voice felt her own again. She felt a smile form on her features as the confidence that had disappeared for weeks, returned with a rush through her veins. And the brown in her eyes regained that spark that Laura had missed so much.

Laura came rushing into the dorm after wandering on the campus for a few hours. She'd skipped class after her talk with Ell. Her mind was still racing but she knew she had to go back to their room eventually. She prepared herself to face her girlfriend and swung the door open. Instead she found an empty room and her heart sank. _What if_-

It was then that she noticed the note on her yellow pillow that was carefully placed on her desk chair. If her mind was racing before, it was now spinning out of control. A note was never good. Not from Carmilla.

She never had the chance to read it as she felt two cold hands slip around her. One arm circled her waist, as the other hand pulled her back by her neck. Her eyes widened in shock before she felt metal push into her back.

The pain was unbearable as she felt the sword dig further inside her flesh. She felt a scream fall from her lips as her legs became weak but she couldn't fall to the ground. The blade and the hand on her neck kept her up on her feet. She tried to pry the hands from her body but she felt paralyzed as the girl behind her gave the blade a hard thrust forward and twisted the blade inside of her.

"If I can't have her, you certainly won't, darling."

The blade and hands left her body as she fell to the ground. Her legs felt limp and she could barely find the strength to reach her hand out as the blonde girl looked down at her.

"Carm…" Her throat felt like sandpaper as she tried with all her might to speak. She felt blood rising up in her throat and coughed. Ell's laugh rang through her ears as the light girl disappeared from the dorm as Carmilla slammed the door open. Her eyes flew to Laura shaking on the ground.

"No! Laura!" She flung herself towards Laura and turned the girl onto her back, pulling her up and holding her close.

"Laura… no, please don't leave me, cupcake." Carmilla was desperate to save her girlfriend though she knew she couldn't do anything to save the girl.

Laura's hand fisted Carmilla's shirt as she continued to gasp for air, fighting the blood creeping up through her body.

"Carm-"

"Shhhh, don't try to speak, my love. It's okay. It's going to be okay. I'll take care of you." Carmilla couldn't stop muttering in Laura's ear as she watched the life drain out of the girl lying in her arms. She shouted, hoping someone- anyone to hear her.

Tears ran down Laura's eyes as her breaths became weaker. Carmilla took Laura's hands in hers and couldn't do anything other than watch as the love of her life slowly died.

"Laura, I love you. I love you so much, Laura." Carmilla's lips were trembling as she looked into the only part of Laura that was still there, her eyes. The corner of her mouth turned slightly upwards before her face became peaceful as the last air she had left pushed out of her lungs, and the light in her eyes went out.

Carmilla chocked out a loud plea as she pulled the lifeless body close. Crying was not something she was capable of, but her body still trembled as she kept pressing her lips to the girl's forehead.

"I'm so sorry, Laura."


End file.
